McAdam - Wellfield Expansion Project

completed

The purpose of the project is to provide additional groundwater supply capacity to support future socio-economic growth, as well as allow for the decommissioning of one of the four existing production wells with manganese concentrations in excess of drinking water guidelines which has led to adverse water system operational issues, an issue possibly linked to Climate Change. This issue is exacerbated during any prolonged periods of abnormally low precipitation of which several have been experienced in much of the province including the McAdam area in recent years. As a result of the dry weather periods and the continued operational issues with manganese, the pumping rate of one of the wells has been reduced. This is problematic for the Village, since the current water demand is near the capacity of the existing wellfield, such that it is understood that the Village typically cannot comply with the water system flushing program stipulated in the regulatory Approval to Operate as a result of the requirement for mandatory water conservation measures. This project will be Phase 1 of the wellfield expansion project. The project scope of work will include widening/upgrading an existing woods trail to provide access to target drilling locations; constructing a new unpaved road between the existing woods trail and the wells to provide access to the target drilling location; and completion of test well drilling and hydrogeological pump testing at up to three target drilling locations. Pending favorable results of the test well drilling and pump testing program, the Village will also construct up to two new municipal production wells and connect these wells to the existing municipal water system. This will involve the construction of a new water transmission mains to connect these wells to the existing water treatment building and the completion of some infrastructure upgrades to this existing building in order to accommodate the expansion.